Today, finally, we did the stock up shop that normally gets done at the end of the month!
Between issues with the truck and trying to get my mother’s apartment emptied before the end of January, what would have been our first stock up shopping trip to the city, didn’t happen.
This trip is normally a stop at Canadian Tire, a Walmart and then either the international grocery store we like so much, or a Superstore.
Well, we’ve done our Costco shop, and have done local shops, so today we only needed to go to Canadian Tire and Walmart. Both of which we could do in the smaller city where my mother is now in a Transitional Care Unit, until they can find space for her in a personal care home on a permanent basis.
I didn’t take a picture, but our first stop was at Canadian Tire, where we got three 40 pound bags of litter pellets. I was also looking for more seed starting mix, but they only had Miracle Gro, which has become increasingly filled with chunks of wood and twigs. So I skipped that, but I did pick up a new growing tray kit. They had 72 cell trays with hexagonal cells and a greenhouse dome lid for only about $9. I just got the one, as I have other things I can use. I’ll eventually need to get more drain trays separately, though. More and more of my older ones are starting to crack.
My Canadian Tire purchase was only three bags of pellets and the one tray kit, which totaled $35.24
Then, it was the Walmart.
This is what $288.51 looks like.
Most of my list was non-grocery items. My husband requested a few things, and my older daughter requested some heat and eats. None of us are doing well enough to stand in a kitchen, cooking a full meal, right now.
So this is what I ended up getting.
I couldn’t get the receipt to lie flat, but I think it’s still readable.
In the heat and eats, my daughter chose dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets, just for fun. Not something we normally get, at all, ever! I grabbed a package of corn dogs at the last minute (they became supper!), plus we got a couple of bags of frozen tater tots.
For other food items, we got a couple more loaves of rye bread, sandwich pickles, 3% milk, a case of Kraft Dinner that was on sale, a bottle of Kefir (a rare treat), Birthday Cake flavoured coffee creamer, a box of Sleepytime tea and a bag of oranges.
My husband requested Fresca, sour candies and water flavours.
There are some feminine hygiene products, hair oil, shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, paper towels, two cases of canned cat food, and the Jiffy seed starting mix I was looking for. Also, a package of baby wipes to keep in the truck for hand washing.
For the drive home, we got a couple of drinks and a snack to try. Samosa chips; rosemary vinaigrette flavoured. They were quite tasty!
And that’s it; 33 items in total came to almost $300.
Our Walmart shop actually cost more than getting the truck repaired. That doesn’t even include the Canadian Tire stuff, nor the gas we got on the way home (I only put in $20, but used my points to get 10¢ off per liter, so I got more for my money).
*sigh*
Thankfully, though, this should be our last big shop for the month. Which is already almost half over.
2026 is already just flying by!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 